Lending to households down 4.5% in May - Central Bank

New figures from the Central Bank show that loans to households fell by 4.5% in May on an annual basis.

The Central Bank said that lending for mortgages was 2.1% lower on a yearly, while lending for consumption and other purposes slumped by 11.5%.

Today's figures also showed that households' repayments of loans to credit institutions exceeded draw-downs by €507m in May. This followed a net monthly decrease of €631m in April.

The annual rate of change in Irish private-sector deposits remained positive in May. Private-sector deposits increased by 7.6% over the year after a 7.7% annual increase in April.

Deposits from households were down 0.3% on a year-on-year basis, while deposits from insurance corporations, pension funds and other financial intermediaries combined rose by 25.1%. Deposits from non-financial corporates were up 5.9% over the same time.